Around the wicket gate by C. H. Spurgeon (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example)
In Chapter Eight Spurgeon tells the reader to not let any favourite sin stop us coming to Christ: 'Will you keep your sin and go to hell? Or leave your sin and go to heaven?'
Great illustration to show we cannot keep on enjoying a particular sin and be a Christian: 'A man goes to the shipping agency and asks if he can be taken to America. He is assured that a ship is just ready, that he has only to go on board, and he will soon reach New York. "But," says he, "I want to stop at home in England, and mind my shop all the time I am crossing the Atlantic." The agent thinks he is talking to a madman, tells him to go about his business, and not waste his time by playing the fool.'
But it's so true. We want to hang onto our sin while repenting of it. Talk about inconsistent!
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
1 comment:
Spurgeon warns us so sternly: The great matter is to be delivered from the love of sin: this is the sure effect of trust in the Saviour; but if this effect is so far from being desired that it is even refused, all talk of trusting in the Saviour for salvation is an idle tale.
This statement of Spurgeon reminds me of what Ryle says about the fact that there is no neutrality in our regard for the Saviour. We either want to know, love and please Him of we still want the way of sin. Your recent focus on Murray's words surely is relevant here:
It is very easy for us to speak of sin, to be very denunciatory respecting sin, and denunciatory respecting the particular sins of other people and yet not be penitent regarding our own particular sins. The test of repentance is the genuineness and resoluteness of our repentance in respect of our own sins, sins characterized by the aggravations which are peculiar to our own selves.
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